Marijuana 'mules' plead guilty

Plenty of secrets continue to swirl around Lisette Lee despite her changing her plea to guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court.

Plenty of secrets continue to swirl around Lisette Lee despite her changing her plea to guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court.

The truth of her claim that she's an heiress to the Samsung fortune hasn't been resolved, and whatever deal she made with U.S. prosecutors in her plea agreement to drug-trafficking charges is sealed from public view.

After more than seven months in jail, the 29-year-old California woman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute about 2,200 pounds of marijuana.

The crime carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison with a possible maximum sentence of life.

Her bodyguard, Frank S. Edwards, also pleaded guilty yesterday - to a charge of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute about 220 pounds of marijuana.

That carries a mandatory minimum prison term of five years and a maximum term of 40 years in prison.

However, assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy D. Prichard said both defendants could be sentenced to less time in prison.

Lee and Edwards were arrested June 14 after they got off a private jet at Lane Aviation at Port Columbus with what authorities said were 13 suitcases filled with marijuana. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents also have charged five others in the case.

An indictment charged that Lee had made 11 other trips to Ohio with marijuana between November 2009 and June 2010.

DEA special agent Matthew Heufelder said in court yesterday that Edwards, 40, of Hacienda, Calif., was a courier who had been "recruited and directed" by Lee for "a large-scale marijuana-distribution organization" that brought numerous shipments of marijuana from Los Angeles to central Ohio.

Edwards participated in two trips and was paid several thousand dollars.

Heufelder said Lee, of Los Angeles, was a primary courier for the organization and arranged 14 trips. Couriers brought in about 7,000 pounds of marijuana during those trips and netted more than $3 million, he said.

"Once in Columbus, Lee and other couriers distributed the marijuana to area customers, and then collected and packaged the proceeds for the return flight," the agent said.

He said Lee stored the marijuana shipments in her Los Angeles apartment on several occasions.

In exchange for the pleas, prosecutors agreed to drop other charges against Lee and Edwards.

Federal Judge Algenon L. Marbley will sentence the two at a later date.

Prichard said the investigation into the drug ring continues. Two other defendants have pleaded guilty, and three others have trials pending.

Prichard called Lee's participation "very strange."

Lee appeared in court with Jon Saia, a Columbus lawyer she hired Tuesday. Saia said Lee, who led a wealthy lifestyle in California, pleaded guilty so she could get on with her life.

"She is very, very, very remorseful," he said after the hearing. "She led a very privileged, isolated life and she was taken advantage of because of her resources.

"I'm not sure she fully understood the ramifications of what she did."

From the moment she was arrested, Lee said that she was the granddaughter of Byung-Chul Lee, the founder of Samsung. Lisette Lee said her parents, who were not married, had friends adopt her at birth and take her to the United States.

Samsung has denied that she is a member of the family, one of the richest in South Korea.

Lee never provided concrete evidence of the tie to Samsung or of her birth or adoption records. But her aunt testified under oath that Lee's mother was Corine Lee, the daughter of Byung-Chul Lee.

Saia said he could not verify Lee's family ties. However, he said Samsung had nothing to do with the drug trafficking.

"She does have ties to two Asian conglomerates," he said.

Pritchard said he still does not know whether Lee is a Samsung heiress.